DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.973#0077
FKIEZE OF PAKTHENON. 69
A solemn sacrifice, equestrian and gymnastic contests,
and the Pyrrhic dance, were all included in the ceremonial;
but its principal feature was the offering of a new robe,
peplos, to the goddess on her birthday. The peplos of
Athene was a woven mantle renewed every four years.
On the ground, which is described as dart violet and also
as saffron-coloured, was interwoven the battle of the Gods
and the Giants, in which Zeus and Athene were repre-
sented. It was used to drape the rude wooden image of
Athene.
The festival was originally an annual one. Peisistratos,
in the middle of the 6th century B.C., appointed a celebra-
tion of special splendour and solemnity every four years,
and from this time dates the distinction between the
Greater and the Lesser Panathenaia. Hipparchos, the
son of Peisistratos, added a contest of rhapsodes reciting
the Homeric poems. The festival was further amplified
by Pericles, who introduced a musical contest and himself
acted as athloiheies, or steward.
On the birthday of the goddess the procession which
conveyed the peplos to her temple assembled in the outer
Cerameicos, and passed through the lower city round the
Acropolis, which it ascended through the Propylasa.
During its passage through the city the peplos was dis-
played on the mast and yard of a ship, which was drawn
on rollers. In the procession of Eosalia at Palermo, a
ship is employed for a similar purpose (Brydone, Tour,
Letter xxx.). In this solemn ceremony, the whole body
of Athenian citizens were represented. Among those who
are particularly mentioned as taking part in the procession
were the noble Athenian maidens, Canephori, who bore
baskets, hanea, with implements and offerings for the
sacrifice; the Diphrophori with stools (diphroi); the
metoik or alien Scaphephori, whose function it was to
carry certain trays, skaphae, containing cakes and other
A solemn sacrifice, equestrian and gymnastic contests,
and the Pyrrhic dance, were all included in the ceremonial;
but its principal feature was the offering of a new robe,
peplos, to the goddess on her birthday. The peplos of
Athene was a woven mantle renewed every four years.
On the ground, which is described as dart violet and also
as saffron-coloured, was interwoven the battle of the Gods
and the Giants, in which Zeus and Athene were repre-
sented. It was used to drape the rude wooden image of
Athene.
The festival was originally an annual one. Peisistratos,
in the middle of the 6th century B.C., appointed a celebra-
tion of special splendour and solemnity every four years,
and from this time dates the distinction between the
Greater and the Lesser Panathenaia. Hipparchos, the
son of Peisistratos, added a contest of rhapsodes reciting
the Homeric poems. The festival was further amplified
by Pericles, who introduced a musical contest and himself
acted as athloiheies, or steward.
On the birthday of the goddess the procession which
conveyed the peplos to her temple assembled in the outer
Cerameicos, and passed through the lower city round the
Acropolis, which it ascended through the Propylasa.
During its passage through the city the peplos was dis-
played on the mast and yard of a ship, which was drawn
on rollers. In the procession of Eosalia at Palermo, a
ship is employed for a similar purpose (Brydone, Tour,
Letter xxx.). In this solemn ceremony, the whole body
of Athenian citizens were represented. Among those who
are particularly mentioned as taking part in the procession
were the noble Athenian maidens, Canephori, who bore
baskets, hanea, with implements and offerings for the
sacrifice; the Diphrophori with stools (diphroi); the
metoik or alien Scaphephori, whose function it was to
carry certain trays, skaphae, containing cakes and other